Fighter jet crashes during training, two people missing

The U.S. Navy was looking Wednesday for 2 aviators whose aircraft crashed throughout a routine coaching flight.

The EA-18G Growler jet from the Digital Assault Squadron crashed east of Mount Rainier at about 3:23 p.m. Tuesday, in response to Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. Search groups, together with a U.S. Navy MH-60S helicopter, launched from NAS Whidbey Island to attempt to discover the crew and look at the crash website.

Navy officers mentioned they didn’t know if the 2 crew members managed to eject earlier than the crash, which stays underneath investigation.

The EA-18G Growler is just like the F/A-18F Tremendous Hornet and contains refined digital warfare gadgets. Many of the Growler squadrons are primarily based at Whidbey Island. One squadron is predicated at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan.

The “Zappers” have been just lately deployed on the united statesDwight D. Eisenhower.

The search Wednesday was taking place in wet and cloudy climate close to Mount Rainier, a towering lively volcano that’s blanketed in snowfields and glaciers year-round.

The primary manufacturing of the Growler was delivered to Whidbey Island in 2008. Within the final 15 years, it has operated across the globe supporting main actions, the Navy mentioned. The aircraft seats a pilot in entrance and an electronics operator behind them.

“The EA-18G Growler plane we fly represents essentially the most superior expertise in airborne Digital Assault and stands because the Navy’s first line of protection in hostile environments,” the Navy mentioned on its web site. Every plane prices about $67 million.

Navy plane coaching workout routines and journey might be harmful and typically end in crashes, accidents and deaths.

In Might, an F-35 fighter jet on its method from Texas to Edwards Air Power Base close to Los Angeles crashed after the pilot stopped to refuel in New Mexico. The pilot was the one particular person on board in that case, and was taken to a hospital with critical accidents.

Final yr, eight U.S. Air Power particular Operations Command service members have been killed when a CV-22B Osprey plane they have been flying in crashed off the coast of Japan.